I decided to look around our apartment to see which of the things that I own have real meaning to me and that I would miss if I lost them. In most cases, it’s the art on my walls. In all cases it’s not just the pieces, but what they represent, that holds meaning for me.
On February 10, 2021, Lifetime Arts' Director of Education, Annie Montgomery and Pushcart Prize Nominated Poet, Mary Moore Easter, will present the virtual workshop, "Combating Ageism in a Socially Distanced World," during the National Guild for Community Education's online learning series, Rootwork. During the workshop, participants will learn how creative aging arts education programs combat ageism and are a pathway to reconnect older adults to one another, and to their communities in the midst of the pandemic.
Earlier this year Michael Matthew Ferrell, founder of Alive & Kickin’, a touring vocal ensemble of older adults “who rock,” collaborated with Sandy Boren-Barett, the CEO and Artistic Director of Stages Theatre Company, an educational theatre program for children and youth, to create the intergenerational music program, “Peace 4 the Ages.” The program paired older adults and …
Lifetime Arts is proud to launch The Creative Aging Resource website (http://www.creativeagingresource.org), the first dedicated place on the web to offer artists, community educators, program administrators, senior service professionals, and funders a browsable directory of hundreds of hand-curated pieces of research, media, case studies, experts and organizations related to the field.
When the pandemic initially hit, NEC knew they had to quickly adapt to a virtual world and maintain the connection between their older adult students, faculty, college students and community partners. Faculty and staff addressed this head-on and transitioned their two older adult music programs to a responsive and interactive virtual format.
I started re-evaluating my relationship with Zoom. It wasn’t Zoom’s fault. Zoom had been loyal and reliable. I didn’t want to leave Zoom for another platform, just another medium, like, maybe a book. As I was about to engage Zoom with the, “It’s not you, it’s me” approach, I had a realization; zoom is the only thing that gives me a connection, however tenuous, to other people.
Since March 2020, the CMC has developed several new ways to adapt their Older Adult Choir Program (OACP), which serves nearly 400 older adults in senior centers throughout San Francisco, to a successful online learning platform. To keep their dynamic choir communities connected during COVID-19, the center worked with their senior center partners to create remote instructional videos and zoom sessions.
On September 30, Lifetime Arts’ Director of Education, Annie Montgomery and Education Associate, Julie Kline, will deliver an interactive virtual session on the topic of creative aging programming during COVID-19, part of the 2020 Louisiana Arts Summit and hosted by the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge in partnership with the Louisiana Division of the Arts.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Shannon McDonough Lifetime Arts smcdonough@lifetimearts.org This innovative collaboration promotes wellness and combats social isolation through anti-ageism training and community-based arts education programming. NEW ROCHELLE, NY: Today, Lifetime Arts announced that in addition to the professional development training for teaching artists and library programmers previously announced as part of the Creative Aging …
On August 25, Lifetime Arts' Education Associate, Julie Kline, will deliver the virtual workshop, "Creative Aging During COVID," part of the 2020 Mid-Atlantic Teaching Artists Virtual Retreat. This event will take place via online video conferences over a period of four weeks, from August 10 through September 2, 2020.
For the past three years, teaching artist, Dane Stauffer, has been teaching his storytelling programs to the same group of students at the Park Square Theater in Minneapolis, MN. Dane was in the middle of teaching his program when COVID-19 forced the theater to close. With Park Square Theater’s blessing, Dane shifted his program to an online format and reclaimed it as, “Storytellers Online: Bringing Our Stories to the World.”
When COVID-19 forced teachers and students to shelter in place, Stagebridge’s programming was between sessions. Staff were able to take this time to decide how to proceed with their popular Performing Arts Institute, and discovered that the digital shift to online learning could be the next step to building their community of artists and older adult learners.
Teaching Artist, Susan Willerman, was teaching her workshop, “Writing From Life” at Morningside Retirement and Health Services in Washington Heights, NYC before COVID-19 halted her teachings. With the help from one of her students, Susan shifted her memoir workshop to an online format, allowing her students to maintain connection and inspiration through writing during the crisis.
Lifetime Arts Roster Teaching Artist, Greacian Goeke, has been teaching her signature class, “Free to Move: Expressive Movement & Rhythm for Brain & Body Health,” at the Albany Senior Center outside of Oakland, CA for the last 10 years. When COVID-19 forced the Albany Senior Center to shut down and in-person programming and live performances to disband, Greacian immediately reached out to her students to continue her weekly movement classes via Zoom.
To me, not wasting time means not wasting the opportunity to create something. So if we’re trying to write NOW for the theatre, are we writing for what theatre is now or sometime in the (hopefully not too distant) future? Why can’t we do both? There are many theatre makers who are working hard to keep the medium alive in any way they can — some more successfully than others.
This a personal reflection on ageism written by Lifetime Arts' Director of Education, Annie Montgomery. This article was originally published in the National Guild for Community Arts Education's Guild Notes, 2020, Issue 1.
While our campaign, “Connect Through Creativity Now,” highlights teaching artists, arts and service organizations working within the traditional Creative Aging model (sequential learning, skill-building, social-engagement) while stay-at-home orders prohibit in-person social gatherings, there are a number of other efforts emerging that warrant mention. Below are several examples of others working outside the traditional model, who …
Debra Pasquerette, teaching artist and Manager of Community Engagement at The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts in Beverly Hills CA, was teaching, “Staged Stories,” a storytelling/memoir program when the crisis forced her to cancel the culminating event. Debra designed a new extended curriculum that stretches well beyond the original eight week series that allows students to meet every week through a two-hour Zoom session.
Teaching artist and Lifetime Arts Trainer, Vinny Mraz, was teaching his third "Comedy Workshop" to students at the Wartburg in Mt. Vernon, NY, before he had to disband the class due to the COVID crisis. While the program is on pause, he continues to share his appreciation for his students by painting their portraits and sharing them on his Instagram.
When the COVID crisis hit, DOROT was determined to continue serving their community members, who have come to appreciate high-quality arts programming and social interaction with their friends and staff. In just one month, DOROT was able to move all of their onsite programs to what they are calling DOROT Onsite @Home via Zoom video conferencing.
Wyoming Arts Council Receives $20,000 Grant from the Wyoming Community Foundation for Creative Aging Training in Partnership with the Wyoming State Library and Lifetime Arts The Wyoming Arts Council is pleased to announce the receipt of a $20,000 grant from the Wyoming Community Foundation’s McMurry Library Endowment Fund. Through a partnership between the Wyoming Arts …
“I think Zoom is a good platform because our members have the option to call in [by phone] — even from a landline,” said Laura Marceca, Director of Greenwich House Senior Center on the Square. Laura has been thrilled to see that classes are very well attended and are attracting new students.
MAKING A POP-UP MEMORY PAGE with Spica Wobbe & Karen Oughtred | PART 1: Materials and Tools | Making the Base Page Queens, NY is one of the most international places in the world. The Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts have set up a program called FTH at Home: Global Arts for Global …
The Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte, Universidad de Puerto Rico, part of the Seeding Vitality Arts in Museums Cohort, were at the end of their self-portrait program when COVID-19 impacted in-person programming. With two classes left unfinished, the museum's staff and teaching artist joined forces to design and implement an online session which gave students the opportunity to socially engage with one another, share their culminating work, and end the program as a community.
“We're all doing this really new and hard thing by trying to translate in person experiences to the virtual platform,” he says, “Don't stress yourself out trying to make it perfect. Be upfront with folks about the experiment of it and leave space for them to give feedback.”
John Prine died this past week — a victim of Covid19. "Hello in There" is being performed and shared again, and is a potent reminder of the toll this pandemic is taking on older adults in particular — and it is a call for us all to reach out.
These days that indecisiveness is compounded by being thrust into a situation that has no precedent, for which there is no handbook, and has no end that anyone can see. The future is always a mystery and not knowing is always part of the equation in trying to figure out your life moves. But this is off the chart unknown.
Julie co-facilitates Lifetime Arts’ trainings across the country, assists with the design and development of training curriculum, and supports all of Lifetime Arts' education efforts.
In January, at the culminating event for, “A Storied Life,” a 12-week digital storytelling workshop offered by the Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) in partnership with The Knolls, a Bethel Community, eight filmmakers — all aged 55+ — wowed a packed screening room with digital film shorts depicting personal stories of love, loss, and discovery. …
